If we had blogs in 1997: Reflections on semester 1

Before I start posting the next semester of my 1997-1998 study abroad journal, I thought I should take some time to reflect upon the first one. The time was window shopping, seeing things from the outside. I was still an Ohioan, yet to become a citizen of the world. But I had seen those things, even if from the outside, things you can't find in isolated corners of the world.

Southwest Ohio hadn't experience a conflict since the civil war. It had never felt the rain of bombs from an aerial war. It had never known life after the apocalypse, rebuilding a town from rubble, the rebirth that is possible from the ashes of devastation, the reconciliation that can bloom from the deepest hatreds. Had I not traveled to and lived on a continent fifty years removed from attempted suicide, I'd be disconnected from these realities like most Americans are today. I was especially drawn to the post-Soviet new world order, curious about how the planet would change, skeptical about the triumph of liberal democracy as Fukuyama so arrogantly had proclaimed. I saw bullet-riddled buildings in East Berlin; military cemeteries in France, Germany, and Luxembourg; went to concentration camps, museums, and memorials; and met people whose lives had forever been altered by the tragedy of war. I saw the European Union as the grandest anti-war experiment the world has ever known. No, I did not experience an active conflict at that time, but it became real to me over there.

So, too, did the little orange and yellow and green spots on a map. People lived in these spots, people who laughed, cried, had families, went to work, and all of the same things we as Americans did. In fact, I learned that Europeans did a lot of things better than we did, that they lived fuller lives than us, ate better food, treated their citizens as human beings rather than consumers or producers of labor. I wasn't questioning the rationality of nationality yet, but a seed had certainly been planted within me.

I didn't make the dean's list that semester thanks to Tony Steinhoff. To have one professor in charge of six of your credit hours makes things tough, especially when he does not give A's or when he has the personality of a doorknob and you're reading books like Wealth of Nations and The Leviathan and going on week-long trips that are so disorganized you don't even know who Christophe Plantin is at the end of a week during which he is a central character. The thing about the class is that it would have helped me a great deal if I had learned more about the ideas we were reading, if I could remember the central tenets of Hobbes or Locke or Rousseau even the next semester for my academic work. But the class was so dull and seemingly followed no logical order that I failed to retain most of it and had to learn it myself years later. A great opportunity to learn it in the place where it happened was missed.

But that wasn't really the point of going abroad. Originally, the point was to get away from the monotony of Ohio. I chose to go to Miami because of the Luxembourg program; my student tour guide of the university was going the next semester and it was all she talked about on the tour. I think of the series of coincidences that put me in Luxembourg - how I was only on that tour to get out of a day of high school and how I heard of the school because a rep was at my high school and I wanted to get out of physics class - and it reminds me how life is funny like that, how even a second can change the course of our lives forever.

Now more than ever Americans are afraid of all things foreign. Only a quarter of us even hold a passport. We should be pushing study abroad for everyone. Experience erases fear. And Americans certainly wouldn't let their government get away with the things it does in their name if they better understood the world. Besides, the world is a wondrous place, full of seemingly impossible places and feats and stories and people and beauty. To ignore all of that is, well, criminal. Evil, even.

If we had blogs in 1997: Goodbye, 1997

The last post from the first semester of my year abroad in Europe. Lots of good riddance here. As always, spelling, grammatical, and factual errors have been preserved.

11 Dec 1997

I must start by saying how much Kristine disgusts me. Last night she locked us out of the common room because Adam was here. I can't wait for her to go. She is the most irresponsible, disrespectful, immature person I have ever had the misfortune of meeting. Hilarious.

Now that I got that out, let me start with today's events and work backwards to Thanksgiving weekend. Today, I finally got my research paper done. I even turned it in to Tony, though technically its not due until tomorrow. A funny thing happened - all the proscrastinators couldn't save their papers. They kept the chateau open until 10:30, but a lot of that work was lost. I hope Kristine's work was lost, though she probably wasn't doing any. Schadenfreude!

Anyway, that's all I've been doing for the past couple of weeks. I've fallen far behind in Smith (Adam, as in Wealth of Nations) and Hitler (Adolf, as in murderous dictator). I barely remember this week - I can't believe Thursday is over already. Last night we had a slide show, but I didn't think it was sad because I'm not leaving. I wish a few people were staying - Courtney, John, Kelly, Bethany, Jared, Steve C, Steve B, Mary, JJ, Dave, and maybe a few others, the mature ones. I would even help Kristine carry her bags out the door if it meant getting rid of her quicker. Some people said some really dumb things at the slide show. They're proud of their immaturity. Otherwise, the day was uneventful. I can't think of any extraordinary thing that happened Tuesday or Monday. Sunday I went to the international craft bazaar, which seemed to be a waste of time. Wait. That was the Sunday before. Last Sunday I spent the day at the chateau because it was open. I must have gotten a lot of work done, because I'm finished now. Saturday can't be explained until I explain Friday's dinner-dance.

Me & April left at 5:30 for Lux. Matt was there at the train station and Niki, Valerie, and Lissa were there. So we all rode the train together to the Lux train station where we had the ball. Dinner was chicken cordon bleu, some wierd stuff, potatoes, quiche, and lots of wine. The Dupays came late, and complained about the food and made no effort to hide their boredom. Matt got the Becker scholarship for which me & Erika were in the running. I got the Most Likely to Be Prepared for Winter and Hunting Season 365 Days a Year superlative. This was because of the red hat I wore everywhere. I drank 4 or 5 glasses of wine and bought three beers. There was dancing - I hate dancing. Mary went on a pecking spree. She told Matt O she liked him but he didn't remember any of it. At least he acted like it. If he did remember, he's a great guy for pretending he didn't. Anyway, the pecking spree continued at Pub 13. I had two pina coladas, a cigar which I stole from Osborne, and a cigarette which I ended up dropping on Julia. Gross. Smoking. Ugh. Have only done it a few times in my life. She was great - trashed but cool. Her and Hans looked really great together. Yawn...

Anyway, the most suprising thing of the night was Dan D. Just talking to him - he is a good guy, he just has a real problem with alcohol, and he's pretty immature. I wonder if its because he gained that reputation and he thinks he has to keep it. For some reason, we all just left. I went to Erika's house with Matt, Mary, and who-knows-why-Lissa, where I passed out. Next thing I knew, Matt & Mary and what's her name left, not soon after Brian B left Julie Co's room. Hmm... So I moved into Erika's bed and woke up when Madame Lye came into the room. Erika was sleeping on her chair. It looked so uncomfortable. Yawn...

We left about 1pm to get lunch at the spicy food place across from the train station. Spicy food? That's real specific. I wonder if it was Indian. Turkish? Probably something like that, something I'd never eaten during my Southwest Ohio upbringing. Then we went to Clervaux after we met Matt. We got to the hotel and they just laid around. Then Justina got there and we all ate dinner. It wasn't that great for the price. (Before that we had the whimpiest shakes ever for $3.) Then we went up to a room and laid around until Julia, Hans, & Brad came. We watched Home Alone in french. (April said she watched it in German, but I don't see how it would be on in French and German on the same night. I think she just couldn't distinguish between french and german - and she claims to understand french. What bullshit! Ha! There was a lot of that. Since we had to take either French or German, some students thought that after a few months, since they could understand a few words they were fluent in a language. The funny thing about this comment is that it is quite possible the movie was in Luxembourgish, which is a Germanic dialect with French loan words. I could have thought it was French because I understood a few of the words, while she could have thought it was German because she couldn't understand enough of the words!) Then we watched Doloris Claiborne in English. After, we talked for awhile, but it wasn't a memorable conversation. In the morning me & Justina watched Smurfs in Deutsch. We ate bread and nutella like a typical breakfast. Then we went to the chateau. That means the chateau in Clervaux.

Don't know why I repeat all this again: The week before was more work and not a lot of non routine happenings. The Sunday before, I went to the international bazaar and the Lux mall. Saturday was fun. We had Thanksgiving at Erika's house. Erika did most things. Matt & Mary peeled the potatoes, I did onions, Julia and Justina did carrots, Brad and Hans made Tiramisu, Julia messed up the whipped cream. The meal was wonderful. The wine really got to me, though. Me and Erika, that is. She passed out on her bed. We all had a bottle of wine each. It was a wonderful time, but now Erika has this thing against alcohol. I wish she didn't. The Friday before that we saw the Peacemaker, which had a lot of flaws, but I still liked it. Mary threw a fit when we tore it apart. She throws a lot of fits. She didn't even go to Clervaux with us.

I miss Lynn. I wonder what's up with her. I hope nothing has changed between us. If she abandons me, I don't know what I'll do. Why must I fear this always? I get to go home in one week. I can't wait.

19 Dec 1997

It's over. I'm sitting in Schiphol airport now. My flight to Detroit doesn't leave till 2:30, and it's only 11 o'clock. But I get to fly into Detroit, after all the hassle. They switched my first flight time from Lux and i would not have gotten here in time. But I was able to get the 7:55am flight to Amsterdam after being placed on stand by. Emily had the same problem. They were going to send her to Milwaukee and me to Columbus via Memphis. But I caught the 4:50am train to Petange, switched there to go to Lux, took Bus 9 to the aeroport,, and arrived there at 6:00am. It was difficult to get such a small amount of sleep. Actually, I'm suprised it hasn't been bad. But last night we went to Pub Gerlache, Chi Chis, and Pub 13. Mary got me an alarm clock as a Christmas present. Erika got me a U2 book in French. I haven't begun to read the book, but the alarm clock helped tremendously in getting up this morning. I think it made the difference between my landing in Detroit or Columbus. And Robert drove me to the Differdange gare. I would have missed it otherwise. I had to make him because I was locked in. Strangest door lock ever. You had to have a key to get OUT of the house. The key wasn't there.

It's been strange. I'll probably never see most of these people again. Some of them I don't want to see ever again. Some I wish were staying next semester. It's been like a dream. Tomorrow I have to get up and go to Tony's class. I guess this is part of the (bad) "dream" since I was sitting in the airport and decided to take the other core course the next semester. Educational psychology. That's how bad his class was - I wouldn't even take a course within my major. No more Tony. I can't believe he gave me a B- on my research project. I better get a better grade on my final paper, even though it's crap. I'm sure I'll get a B/B- like the others. This past week was horrible. Not only did I have four examens, but that damn final was a pain. And I couldn't start it until the research paper was done. Tony does not know how to teach. He was at Pub Gerlache last night, but he left early. He probably was grading our papers. He has to be done by Monday.

Matt was crying last night because people were leaving. I didn't feel sad. I'm glad to get away. I can't wait to go home. Only 12 more hours.

And that's how the semester ends. College-like. Europe had become a home; it was no longer a  foreign land. The next semester brought plenty of new travel adventures. From what I've read so far, these new entries are deeper, better written (better, not great), and evidence of actual learning about the world.

If we had blogs in 1997: Six hours on a train, Paris, and The Note

Vienna, Clervaux, Brussels, Luxembourg, Paris, oh Paris. Again you will find the naming of places but no descriptions of them. I don't even know if it were this trip when I went up the Eiffel Tower for the first time or a subsequent one. With that, I present to you the latest installment of my 1997-1998 journal from Europe, complete with original spelling, grammatical, and factual errors.

31 Oct 1997

I stopped in Vienna on the way back from Italy - it was just half a day. Yes, it was out of the way, but I wanted to see it and didn't know if I'd get another chance. 

Prater

Well, my stuff didn't get stolen, but I didn't get a lot of sleep on the train. I guess it was enough because I'm still running. Vienna was wonderful. It is truly a beautiful city. I would like to come back sometime and see a symphony or even an opera. Wien is to music what firenze is to art.

It was cold, but I walked around all day. I saw the magestic buildings of the old Austrian-Hungarian empire. I walked around the Prater. It would be a great place to hang out in the summer. I sat there for awhile feeling for the first time this semester the end of summer. I was ready to go about 5pm but the train doesn't leave until 9:30. It was dark by 5pm, which makes wandering around harder to do. So I walked around and window shopped and dreamed. I had to pay a $12 supplement to ride this train to Koblenz (so glad I don't have to get off at 6am in Frankfurt and wait for the 7:50 train to Trier/Lux.) I'm so ready to go home to Lux. I'm getting kind of lonely.

I don't mention the brass band that I stopped to listen to, but it was great to listen to free music!

8 Nov 1997

Best use for a tank

What a week. Last Saturday I got to go the Frankfurt to Koblenz route along the Rhine, which I love. It's my favorite train ride. I got home around noon, wrote my postcards, took a shower, ate some Frosted Flakes, and went to bed about 4pm and slept until 8am Sunday morning. Then I went to Clervaux. It was very beautiful. Nothing about the Battle of the Bulge Museum or the kids playing on the tank? Nothing about the autumn-colored Ardennes forests? Nothing about actual Clervaux?

On Tuesday we went to Bizarre and again on Thursday, but Tuesday Ernie was there, and Erika felt uncomfortable the whole night. I don't remember who Ernie was. Then Thursday she gave Matt the note. The note. A juvenile "I like you" note. As if we were in elementary school! Friday I took my poli-sci exam and I'm sure I nailed it. Wednesday I went to Bruxelles for like 2 hours. It took three hours to get there. I walked through the tourist shopping distrcit, failed to find out any info on group flights, but I did get a Belgian Waffle with chantilly et fraises. My class was at 6pm and I thought I could go to Brussels for the day? Six hours on a train for two hours in the city? Insane! I missed Hitler the class because I didn't change trains at Esch and got to the chateau at 7pm. I watched Not Without My Daughter. A movie about an American woman who marries an Iranian-American man. When they go to Iran to visit his family, he won't let her return to the US. She has an opportunity to escape but won't go without her daughter. Friday after my exam, we skipped core (Mary, Matt, & I). Mary and I sat in the kitchen with Erika while she fretted about the letter. Matt was cool with it, though.

We left for Paris yesterday. It was a four hour train ride. Hans went, too, and Bethany was on the train with us, along with some gross smoker with yellow fingers and a disgusting cough. He smoked four cigarettes before he went into the corridor. I think the car was supposed to be non smoking. We saw a rainbow on the train ride.

When we got to Paris, we went straight to the hotel to check in, and then ate at McDonald's. Peer pressure. Then Matt & Mary went to the store & bought some alcohol. Matt had already bought some Bailey's. Hans got drunk and talked all night, and Mary, always the party pooper, went to bed first. At least she got up in the morning this time. Hans was shafted in his high school musicals. He also talked about religion. I disagreed with his views but didn't tell him. Ha! I'd never withhold my thoughts these days! He doesn't believe in Hell. And he doesn't think you have to love Christ to go to Heaven. He thinks everyone goes there. I should have asked him about Hitler.

Anyway, we left at a descent time in the morning, to my surprise. We went straight to Notre Dame, which wasn't as I had imagined it. I don't know what I thought it would look like. Then we walked to the Champs- Elysees and ate at Burger King. Peer pressure. Matt & Mary paid me back for the hotel I had charged on my visa, but not Hans. I charged two French CDs and The Verve to my Visa, and then went to Hagen Daas. I had capucino and Cafe ice cream. I also saw U2 perform Mofo at the European MTV awards, though I didn't hear it. I made Hans pay for mine. He still owes me like $8, but I doubt I ever see it. Hans, you owe me 8 bucks! Ha!

We then walked to the Arc de Triomphe. From there we went to the brown Eifel Tower with the 784 jours until 2000 sign on it. I felt like I was at King's Island. Except the Eiffel Tower is three times taller than the replica at King's Island. And it's freaking Paris! Then Mary wanted to go to the place where Diana died. It was under the replica of the flame of the statue of liberty. How ironic. Like Alanis Morrisette's definition of ironic? Cuz it's not. It was really sad, but cool at the same time because there were things written in so many different languages. From there we took metro back. Matt & Mary went to the gare. Hans came with me to the Hard Rock Cafe and went to a bookstore. I bought my guitar pin but didn't go into the restaurant. We went to the gare and got on the train, and less than four hours later, we got to Lux. Matt and I hurried to catch the :54 train, and here I am. Paris was cool. I plan on going back next semester. Apparently I had already decided at this time I was going to stay another semester. Surprised I didn't mention it earlier. I'm glad I went with Matt & Hans & even Mary who doesn't share any of my interests. But it was a good weekend, and I'm going to bed soon.

Matt does some wierd teeth grinding thing in his sleep.

14 November 1997

Went to Erika's house tonight to eat dinner. It was wonderful pasta and ok cider & wine. Erika and I had too much, I think. Then we went and saw LA Confidential which wasn't that great. Erika was acting wierd, but so was Matt. It's like he avoided me all night...I don't know why he would, but I just felt that way, for some reason. Last night we went to Bizarre, and Brad and I were the only ones who drank. So maybe it had something to do with that. Lately it seems as if he just wants to stay away from us - I think it's Erika's fault because of the note. They still haven't talked about it yet. Today Kristine left her key and so she couldn't get into the house to pack and leave for Prague. I'm sure she'll blame me tomorrow. I'm sick of her irresponsible behavior. I think she needs to grow up. Right now I'm tired and am going to bed.

21 Nov 1997

Three weeks of classes left - I can't believe it. I'm done with traveling for the semester although I really miss it. Being here on weekends makes the time go even faster, because you begin a new week without realizing you've left the last one.

RIP, Pub 13

Tonight Matt, Erika, Mary, and I went to see Peacemaker with George Clooney. I liked it, but Matt & Erika didn't too much. It wasn't the best movie I've ever seen, but it was fun. Then we went to Pub 13, and I think we were the first ones to return after the trashing incident. I don't remember what the "trashing incident" was, but I can guess which drunken morons were involved. Matt & I had a decent conversation on the train about how exhausted we are and was glad to know that I'm not the only one feeling like this. I can't wait till I get to go home. I need a break. School is so hard. Tomorrow and Sunday I will be busting my butt to get things done. It's getting to the point where Luxembourg feels like Oxford (where Miami is located, not England), except I like most of the people here. Though I have learned how to extremely dislike some people on a personal level, I have a lot of great friends to counter that feeling. Helenrose is the biggest moron on the planet.  I can't wait till I never have to see her or a few other waste of skin people. But next year at Miami may be cool.

28 Nov 1997

Shopping for the feast

Yesterday we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner - turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie (w/whipped cream) made from pie filling from the American military base near here. Everyone was drunk - it was pretty disgusting. I remember how pissed I was. Brad M got drunk on 3 glasses of wine & champaigne. We went to the pub by the train station. A man there who knows Matt O bought the second round of drinks for us.


Only five entries in the span of one month. I was enjoying my time, finally. I was LIVING in a foreign country, not spending a few months on vacation. I couldn't travel any more because I didn't have enough money for it and I had used all of my Eurorail days, but it didn't bother me because I was returning for another semester. And I didn't have to deal with The Clique after that.

If we had blogs in 1997: I'm sorry Mario, but your princess is in another palazzo

The student goes to Venice and observes life in boats. She makes no attempt to explain what she is seeing, except for a brief mention that San Marco's church is built on the burial site of St. Mark, nothing about the city's gothic architecture or its connections to the Byzantine Empire or the Islamic world or the Venetian Republic. She didn't know what she was seeing, but she did observe the lives of the Venetians. As always, spelling, grammatical, and factual errors, as well as inane commentary, have been preserved.

30 Oct 1997

Last night I tried to go to bed early but some obnoxious Americans in the room next to me kept me up. Then the girl in my room came in. At first I thought she was an American but she came from Toronto. Her name was Joewel (I asked if it was like the singer) and she had been traveling for a year. She had started off in Australia and was about to finish up in Greece. She took odd jobs to make money. She had already graduated from college and was putting her career on hold to travel. We talked for probably two or three hours about everything. She was going to Rome in the morning, and I told her how much I hated it. She talked about being a Canadian, about her travels, and I mostly listened toward the end because it was getting late and I was really getting tired. But I told her about how embarrassing it was sometimes to be an American over here. She left a pretty big impression on me about confidence being alone. I still didn't have the guts to go to a sit down restaurant alone. So I had no pasta in Italy - I lived on gelati - mostly pistacchio & malaga. Gelati is the plural of gelato, apparently. How can ice cream be plural? I had it three times a day, though today I had two pieces of pizza. No matter where you get pizza in Italy, it's good. Even if it's been sitting out all day. Even if it gives you food poisoning, which it did?


Joewel was supposed to catch the 6:45am or 8:15am train to Rome, but she woke me up at 8:00. Good thing, because I would have kept on sleeping, since I had gone to bed so late. (Since I have no alarm clock. She had hers stolen as well.) I caught the 9:37 train to Venezia. It was a beautiful train ride through the mountains, despite the fact a quarter of it was through tunnels. I don't know what is the accurate figure, but one of the tunnels is over 18km long. While looking up this info, I came across this TripAdvisor question from some woman who is "deathly afraid of tunnels." She ended up not going to Venice because of it. Sad. I'm pretty afraid of flying, but I do it anyway. Why miss out on life experiences because of irrational fear? After Bologna though, it mostly was flat, dull farmland. It felt like Southwest Ohio. Somehow I doubt this is true. I got to Venice about 12:15. I was going to take a canal taxi to San Marco but it was about $15 so I decided to walk. I loved the Venetian glass sculptures. I'd like to decorate my house with it. Venice was beautiful. The canals were as magnificent as I thought they would be. I walked to San Marco through the winding alleys. It took about 40 minutes.

The church was beautiful, but San Marco Square is covered with disgusting pigeons. If you're Princess Cruises, they are "doves." This is how they embellish. Why would anyone want to take a cruise? St. Mark is supposedly buried on the site of the church. I decided to hunt for a piece of pizza that wasn't L5000 a slice. Ha. Not around San Marco. Not around anywhere I searched. I bought some gelati and took a stroll through the residence alleys. I didn't have a map, just started walking. I encountered a tower that was leaning (not as much as Pisa's), and a palace made of red brick (and now I understand why all the castles in Super Mario Brothers are made of red brick.) I don't know what building this refers to. I have a faint recollection of the building but can't find an image of it on Google. It's probably not a palace.

Main Street

I ended up walking around in a circle, and then headed back to San Marco and then tried to make my way towards the train station because I had seen cheaper pizza along that way. (Imagine that - food is cheaper near the train station.) I walked around in circles until I found the right path back. Along the way I stopped at La boutique de gelati or something like that because Let's Go recommended it and I had never eaten at a Let's Go place. I kept walking and bought some postcards for only L300. Then I finally found L2500 pizza and got a piece. It was wonderful. Then I headed back to the train station. I had run out of stuff to do. Actually, there isn't much in Venice to do except shop. And walk around. I had done a lot of that. It was really cold. I'd love to walk around when it was warmer. Nothing to do? Well, perhaps that is true if you had "free" to the statement. Museums, music, bars, restaurants...they all cost money. I missed out on a lot during this whole week. But I got a lot out of it, too.

Traffic in Venice

I sat up at the train station steps and watched the people for awhile. Then I walked the other direction and found a spot where I could watch the boats. I could have sat there all day and watched them. I saw the paramedics load a lady onto the ambulance boat. There were taxi boats, police boats, tow boats, and regular boats. Venice does have cars, but they have a large parking garage to put them all in because there is no way to drive them through the city. I loved it. And I still do. I could sit on those steps right now and be as amused by the ambulance boat as I was on this day.

I walked around a bit more in a last ditch effort to find an Italian flag, but did not succeed. I collected little flags from the countries I visited in Europe. Well, theoretically. I only got them from Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and UK, missing Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and France. I meant to buy an Italian flag when we were there in March. I forgot. It was dark by the time I got back to the train station, so I sat down, or maybe that's when I got my pizza. I sat outside on the steps again and watched the people. This Italian guy comes up to me and says (I think) that I was sitting there since 4 o'clock. He must not have known I had walked around for an hour after the first time I sat there. But it soon got too cold for me. I went inside and got gelatti one last time. Then I got my bag and sat down on the ground because there were no seats. Then some crazy french guy came in and sat down next to me. I think he was a con. He told me he had a girlfriend in Moscow and he didn't know if she loved him or not. He asked me what I thought and I said she did and he kissed me on the cheek. Then he asked if I thought he was good looking. What was I supposed to say? Then he asked if I knew anyone as beautiful as he was. Then he told me he had no place to sleep. I asked him why he didn't get a hotel and he said he had no money. That was my chance to con the con man. I told him I had used all of my money and had nothing but a train ticket. He left me alone soon after that.  Then the security guys came and told me to get off the ground.

I sat on a seat for a second but then got on my train and listened to some obnoxious Americans. I had to go check because I thought they might be Miami students. They weren't, but they were embarrassing me. American tourists are often loud, rude, and think they're entitled. Canadians often sew Canadian flag patches on their backpacks so they aren't mistaken for American. Back then in the pre-George W. Bush years, this was largely due to the obnoxiousness of Americans rather than policy-oriented reasoning.  I was alone in my compartment until the conductor came and sat there. Then 3 people got on at the next stop. Then the conductor and another person got off. Now I am in the compartment with a woman and a shady guy. I really need to watch my stuff, he scares me. Joewel told me that a couple of weeks ago, Italy had an earth quake and they've been having aftershocks for two weeks. Italy doesn't have earthquakes. How apocalyptic is that? Not that it has anything to do with the guy across from me.

Remember plate tectonics?

Italy doesn't have earthquakes? Boy, I was dumb. In 1117, Verona had a massive earthquake that destroyed most of the city's medieval buildings. Sicily had an earthquake in 1169 that killed 15,000 people. In 1343 an earthquake caused a tsunami that destroyed ports along the Amalfi Coast. In 1693, an earthquake in Sicily killed 60,000, and another in 1908 killed 100,000-200,000 people. Italy had two last month! The country has had frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions for 12 million years - it's located on the edge of the Eurasian plate that collides with the African plate.

If we had blogs in 1997: Florence, y'all

In the latest entries from the 1997-1998 European journal, the student comes to her senses about Italy. Florence can do that for you, I guess. As always, spelling, grammatical, and factual errors have been preserved.

29 Oct 1997

I guess I don't hate Italy, just Rome. Firenze was a lot better. I left around 9am this morning and walked. I saw the Palace Vecchio with the Hercules, Neptune, and Replica David statue. David was cool despite the fact the real one is in a museum. Apparently it never occurred to me to see the actual one in the museum. Then I walked to the Duomo and went inside. It was nothing after seeing St. Peter's yesterday. But the outside was cool. I walked through the leather market and ate some gelati. Malaga is a good flavor - I think it has raisins or dates in it. It's rum raisin. I saw the sites of Firenze and then went to Pisa. I saw all the sites of Florence in one morning?!?

I changed the 8 in the 28 to a 9 since they didn't mark my Eurail yesterday. You write in the date when you use a day on a Eurail pass. I had a 15 day over two months pass. Pisa was well worth the hour train ride. The tower was amazing though it really is about to fall over. They have weighted blocks on one side and there is construction everywhere. The tower is no longer moving and engineers say it has been "saved" for another 300 years or so. There are also a lot of touristy shops but the number of tourists wasn't bad (They were all at the Uffizi in Firenze) I wanted to eat at a restaurant there but it was siesta hours so none were open. I spent two hours there then took the train back to Firenze SMN. While it was fun to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa, it's not a place I need to go back to. Not like Florence or Rome or so many other cities in Italy. But you wouldn't have to twist my arm if I found myself having to go back. I was lucky because I got there about 5 minutes after the train was supposed to have left but it was late. When the lady checked my pass she questioned the dark 9 but just told me to be careful next time.

Pisa tower restoration efforts

I forgot to mention on the way to Pisa I sat with a lady and three Italian high school age girls. I thought the first stop was Pisa, but it was Empoli, so I returned to my seat and said "wrong stop". Then the girl across from me told me they had studied English for three years and still couldn't speak it, and I said the same about french. She asked me where I was going and I said to Pisa to eat good food and see the tower. Then they got off. This was worth mentioning? Then there was another stop and I got up and looked around, then the lady in my compartment spoke to me in perfect English. She told me how to get to the tower and asked what part of Britain I was from. Funny because after I told her I was American, she told me she had spent some time in Philadelphia. That was after I told her I missed the leaves on the trees changing. Finally Pisa came and I followed the lady's directions to the tower. It was amazing. After I had studied it, taken pictures, and looked at souvenirs, I went in search of food, but all the restorantis were closed. So then I left.

I still don't like this painting.

When I returned to Firenze I decided to go to the Uffizi, but then I saw the line and the price. I hate that Birth of Venus painting anyway, and I wasn't going to pay $15 to see it. I looked at the statues of all the famous Florentines outside the museum, Michelangelo, Dante, Donatello, Amerigo Vespucci (the real discoverer of America) Well, aside from the Vikings and Chinese and possibly the Polynesians who came before him, not to mention the people who were already living there! Then I saw Kristine and Colleen and avoided them just because I didn't want to see any Americans. As it is right now there are some rude inconsiderate loud ones (what, Americans loud?) next door. I hope they shut up because I want to go to bed in the next couple hours. Anyway, then I searched the city for food for two hours. The restaurants with the good pasta were either too expensive or closed until 7 or 8pm. I finally stopped and got some pizza and Coke at two different snack bars and came back to the hotel. I really want to come back and visit the Tuscan coast someday. The train ride to Pisa was beautiful. The mountains were spectacular. This region is Italy. This region I love. Tomorrow I go to Venice. I hope it's half as good as this.

I never did call Sarah. I hope she didn't expect me to call. As I was writing this, I heard a bunch of guys chanting outside. It actually sounded like a karate class. In Rome I saw Italian communist party signs, and there have been a bunch of army/navy/airforce guys all over both Roma and Firenze, and Pisa as well. I wonder if they're planning a coup. This was a joke.




















I have never been in the Uffizi. I have never been back to Florence. This is a problem that must be rectified soon. Anyone want to help me out with that? 

If we had blogs in 1997: Do you want some formaggio to go with that whine?

The student is acting like a spoiled brat in our next installment of the 1997-1998 journal from Europe. She traveled to Italy for the week long fall break and did nothing but complain. Of course, she was pickpocketed, had food poisoning, and it was raining and cold, but that's no excuse to be standing in the capital of the ancient world declaring hatred for it. As always, spelling, grammatical, and factual errors have been preserved and today's comments are in red italics.

26 Oct 1997

I just realized that I haven't written in a while. Last weekend I stayed in Lux. A lot of people did. Friday night I went to see My Best Friend's Wedding in the Utopolis with Matt, Brad M, Julia, Hans, and Mary. Then we went to Pub 13 and drank Pina Coladas. On Saturday we went to see a concert at the conservatory, then went to an Italian restaurant dans la centre ville that was too expensive for the taste of the food. It was a good weekend.

Monday's Hitler test was too hard, the history paper was crap, and the music test was too hard. It was a hectic week. Hitler test, eh? Relax, it was for a course on the rise and fall of Hitler. Fascinating class. On Thursday we went to Bizarre and had a good time. Bizarre was a bar in Differdange. I stayed home this weekend but am now on a train to Roma. I just spent 3 heures talking to an American guy from the Boston area who is here for 14 weeks. He just finished law school and is traveling through Europe on his own. I can't imagine traveling without a base. Can't believe I ever thought this. If I had the funding, I'd travel the world for years. He got off in Strassburg. Now I am traveling past some mountains in France. I thought they were clouds at first because Ohio sometimes has cloud formations that look like mountains. It's funny that I am in France but the buildings are of German design. As if France and Germany hadn't fought countless wars over territory. I'm glad I am traveling while it is still light.

27 Oct 1997

I hate Rome. Ouch, this hurts my soul. It's dirty, the people are rude, and I lost my alarm clock. I must have left it on the train. I'm pissed. My knee hurts worse than ever, I've had diarhea all day, and now I'm getting a headache. And I lost my alarm clock. Now what am I going to do. I wonder if someone stole it out of my pocket - probably on the train. I think so. I remember putting it in my pocket on the train this morning. And on the overcrowded packed train this evening...Oh, I'm so angry. What am I going to do without an alarm clock?

The forum

Today I saw the collesium, the forum, the spanish steps, and some other old Roman buildings. I will most likely never come back to this city again. I was there this past March. With food poisoning. We weren't there very long thanks to some bad food at an airport in Istanbul. I really want to spend some time there - I would live there in a heartbeat. Now there are three annoying Japanese in my room. I just want to sit in peace. I can't wait to leave this city. I traveled with a girl from Cleveland on the train last night. She's studying in Florence for the year. She was kind of strange. She gave me her address, but I'm not going to call, I don't think.  

If we had memes in 1997, this would be it: 

28 Oct 1997

The entry to the Sistine Chapel. Bad photo, but you get idea on how ornate.

The only good part of Rome technically isn't Rome - it's the Vatican. I got there about 10:30am after riding a packed bus. The first thing I did was go to the Vatican museum (after a meeting with the toilet.) There were a bunch of pots and sculptures and paintings, but the Sistine Chapel was the best. I barely looked at anything else. Next time I go to Rome, I will spend an entire day at the Vatican looking at everything else, and I'll have some knowledge and appreciation for those pots and sculptures and paintings. Then I went through St. Peter's. It was beautiful, but there were more statues of popes and saints than of Christ, which is really bothersome. And the non-Christian tourists bothered me too. I thought it would be this incredible religious experience, but I succeeded in discovering the complaints against Catholicism. Not that saints and popes aren't holy, but Christ is the reason for religion, not them. I tried religion once. Turns out it's not for me.

Obelisk the Romans stole from the Egyptians. Guess they added the cross on top.

I went down to where all the popes are buried then to the cupola, the dome. There is no sign that tells people how to get to it, I guess so they don't have a lot of people going, but Let's Go had the way. Let's Go is a budget guide book. After taking an elevator and over 300 narrow, winding, crooked stairs, I saw Rome from a beautiful view, high up, away from all the dirt and people. It was amazing. The mountains in the distance were spectacular. If it wasn't cold and rainy I could have stayed there for hours. As it was, I was wearing a skirt and sandals (and was very comfortable), which was worse when I got to icy Florence. A skirt? I guess I thought I had to dress up to go to the Vatican? In Rome, the only thing that saved my stomach was gelato. I have no problem eating lots of it. But after the Vatican, I decided I was sick of Rome, so I left. Good lord, this is ridiculous. Two days in Rome and I leave?!?

Pasta bar at the McDonald's in Rome

I went to the termini and had to make a reservation for the treni to Firenze, but the guy at the first ticket window told me to go to the Eurostar ticket windows, which I knew I didn't want. I don't think he wanted to deal with me. But I went to the Eurostar window anyway and made a reservation, telling him my Eurail was my ticket and so I ended up paying $4 to ride the Eurostar to Firenze. It was awesome, except I couldn't really enjoy it because I was worrying about what they'd do if they checked my ticket and it was wrong. But we got to Firenze right before the lady came to check my ticket, so I grabbed my bag and stood at the door waiting for the train to stop. It only took 1 1/2  instead of 2 1/2 hrs and was the most comfortable train ride. They even served peanuts. Quite a contrast to the Roman Metro.

Well, it was freezing when I got to Firenze in my skirt and sandals, and I couldn't find the WC to change into warmer clothes. I didn't want to walk all the way to the hostel I had reservations for, so I walked to one near the station, but it was full. Then I walked back to the train station and went to informazioni to get directions to my hostel. I then decided to change clothes in a corner of the train station because I couldn't walk in the cold wearing what I had on. So I changed and set off for the hostel. When I got there they told me they gave my reservations to someone else because I had not confirmed. It's a HOSTEL, not a hotel. Apparently they don't understand the idea of a hostel. I was so mad, I almost started crying. In my letter to make reservations, I had said I wouldn't be arriving until around 8pm. It was only 7pm and they had already given my bed away. So I started to panic, looked in Let's Go, and found another place in the same area. So I went there, with some difficulty in finding the place, since the numbers for the addresses had two strands of numbers running. I have no idea what this means. Then I waited for a half hour before someone came to the desk. I'm not sure if this is hyperbole. Some Italian lady who wasn't very happy came in and gave me the last bed in the place. Then another guy came in who spoke English and I got a bed. Then I met an Australian girl who's in this room, and we talked a little. Then she left, I took a shower, and it's now ten o'clock and I'm going to bed. I hate Italy. Blasphemy.

Two days in Rome. Geesh. Give me two years there. It's funny now to think about how I had no real interest in Rome back then, even though I minored in history. I'm trying to remember when I became an ancient history enthusiast, but I can't. I'd like to think that this year in Europe piqued my curiosity about it, but this post makes me question that. At the time, I was fascinated by World War II and the Cold War and didn't understand how what happened during the ancient times continues to affect what happens today; I didn't understand how all of history, all of time, is connected. I don't remember when I started catching up on Greek mythology (although I do remember a brief time during childhood in which I was fascinated by it.) I don't remember the first time I picked up Gibbons' The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I don't remember the first time Egyptian hieroglyphics excited me. Sometime after college, though, I fell in love with it all.

Sometimes I wonder if I learned anything in college. Seems like everything I know came after it.

If we had blogs in 1997: Something Rotter in the state of Holland

The student goes to Holland and discovers the Dutch are lovers of art, as if she had never seen those dark paintings of those miserable looking people in their uncomfortable pilgrim clothes and the children that looked like miniature adults with hollow eyes that revealed no souls. For whatever reason she thought she could visit every city in Holland in two days and apparently tried to walk on every street in the cities she did get to. 

Thus I present to you the latest entries in my 1997-1998 journal from Europe. I recently purchased a printer/scanner and will be including my photos from the year as well. I had not yet learned how to take good photographs on my cheap 35mm point and shoot (that ended up breaking during the first semester, so I bought another cheap 35mm point and shoot to replace it.) I didn't take a lot of photos back then - probably because it was expensive to develop film. I think I started to learn how to take a good shot during this year. You can see my recent travel photos on my Tumblr of the same name as this blog.

As always, spelling, grammatical, and factual errors have been preserved and today's comments are in red italics.

7 Oct 1997

Just took a walk through the dreary night in Differdange after a lecture by a mathematics professor. It was quick, and he did a good job of keeping our attention (those that were there, anyway.) The day was unexciting. I got up at 7am though I didn't have class until 4:50pm. I did laundry, e-mailed (eDASHmail?), read Locke (John), and worried about money. I had to talk to Matt about money. I only have $500 left with 11 weeks to go. There's no way I can make that last. And I took two roles in for developing today. That was stupid. Plus I can't access my savings account. That's where all the money is. (What little of it there is.) I don't know what I'm going to do.

I really don't like V. She is such a snob - and she's too ugly to act like that. Oh no you didn't. But her and A. are really shallow - they're wannabes. They're the type of people that always wanted to be "popular" in high school and never were. So now they're trying to be "popular" when they are juniors in college. How transparent they are. What losers. Oh, snap...

14 Oct 1997

Traveling solo to Rotterdam/Amsterdam for the weekend was a good idea. Rotterdam was a cool city. It's very modern. I took the 4:50am train, but didn't switch at Petange and went back to Differdange then to Esch and it stopped. So I had to wait an hour for the next train to Luxville. Then the next train was 40 minutes late, so I ended up getting to Rotterdam at 1:30 instead of 11:30. I didn't go to Gouda like I wanted, or Den Haag either, but I wouldn't have had time anyway. Actually, I couldn't figure out how to get out of the Den Haag train station, so instead went to my hostel in Haarlem.

The hostel was great - there were a bunch of English guys that worked there. I was actually tired and wanted to go to bed early, but I was talking to one of them for awhile (or rather, he was talking to me). He asked me to go to a rave, but I have no desire to attend one. Then he asked me to go to a bar to watch a soccer game with them. I wish I wouldn't have been so tired, because I would have loved to go. How can a 20 year old be too tired to go to a bar with an Englishman to watch soccer? Maybe he was just ugly... Rotterdam had been exhausting. Having little money, all I could do was walk around, but I love that.

I walked around the shopping district & decided I would love to go shopping there someday. They had a lot of cool stuff. I bought two oranges & some cereal bars for the weekend but ended up eating at Burger King, mostly just to sit down and to get out of the rain. Uh huh. Getting tired of this fast food. It rains everyday in Holland. I walked through a flea market after I had basically given up on finding the cube houses, but as I got through the flea market, I saw them. Those have to be the strangest looking apartments in the entire world. After that, I walked down the river, thinking I would get to the ocean, not realizing Rotterdam is not along the ocean. It is the biggest port city in the world. This was true at the time. Singapore took over in 2002 and Shanghai took over in 2009. There's something irrationally sad about that to me. I talked to a very nice Dutch guy when I was walking back to the train station. I left the city with intentions of going to Den Haag next, but my knee couldn't take anymore walking. Rotterdam was flattened in WWII, and very few buildings are more than 40 years old as a result. There are some awesome architectural designs. There was a fountain that spit little bits of water out at a time that was really cool. I'm sure the water was actually cool. They wouldn't heat the water for a fountain.

Amsterdam - a beautiful city

I left Haarlem early Sunday morning for Amsterdam, only a 15 minute train ride. If I ever go to Amsterdam again while I'm still poor, I'll stay in the Haarlem hostel. Great price, too. Amsterdam was beautiful. It was a lot better than I expected. I thought it would be a modern city that people only visited to smoke. But I was amazed by its canals, its buildings, and its art. I was unaware it was such an artistic city, and it inspired me to take up painting. (Actually, I can't afford to buy art supplies, but I would paint if I could afford it.) I wish I would have seen the Van Gogh museum, but I got to see the art show of local artists for free, which is always good. I never did take up painting, but I did eventually get to go to the Van Gogh museum, and I drink my coffee from a Van Gogh mug. Though I didn't get it at the museum - I got it in Columbia, South Carolina. That's a story for another day.

I walked until I couldn't bare to walk anymore because my knee hurt so bad. I bought a bunch of Christmas presents and spent too much money. I ended up going home earlier because I couldn't walk anymore. I rode to Bruxelles by myself, not knowing Jared was on the same train. He saw me in Bruxelles so we rode together back to Lux. That reminds me of Sano, a guy from Amsterdam who was just returning from a month long trip through Africa. I really wanted a peaceful trainride but he started talking to me. He gave me his address and phone number and told me to call if ever I was in Amsterdam. I lied and said I would be back in Amsterdam next month.

I've been working at the school sweeping leaves in the courtyard. Last Friday I helped stuff envelopes with Maga. She made me tell her who broke the stein. Today I found out that she yelled at Brent & Grant. I fell horrible about it. I hope they don't think I'm a tattler. This refers to the injury I sustained in Munich.

It's odd to me that I didn't write more about the things I observed. Like this.Why was I looking for the cube houses? What did they look like to me? Why didn't I mention how the windows point downward and how I wondered how it looked on the inside. In Beirut, I tried to capture everything. Read the "Like this." link above to see!

If we had blogs in 1997: Zoo Station

The student goes to Berlin and sees a city recovering from the Cold War. The city is hopeful, alive, full of possibility, and the cranes, victory towers in their own right, represent something beautiful. She only begins to see the amazement, for the trivialities of being a twenty year old pervade her view. But she senses it, that thing for which the world strives, progress, some call it.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, why were you so bored with everything? You were supposed to stay a year but you hated everything and left after a semester. 

As usual, spelling, grammatical, and factual errors have been preserved.

5 Oct 1997

On the train going home from Berlin now. It's been a long ride, but I don't feel that tired. I'm sure I'll go home and sleep. Berlin was awesome. At least I didn't say cool. I can see how it inspired Bono and the boys to come up with Achtung baby. Yeah, the U2 stuff is starting to annoy me, too, but the Berlin stuff is important. Achtung Baby was inspired by reunification. I got off the train station listening to the album that had a profound effect on my awareness of the world. We never even learned about the USSR and Eastern Europe in elementary school - I guess they were the bad guys and not worth learning about. I have often written about remembering the sledge hammers atop the wall in October 1989 - the images I saw on cable news left a strong impression on me.  I'm just disappointed because I saw none of West Berlin. But I'm definately going back. My spelling was, for whatever reason, appalling back then. East Berlin is incredible. The buildings are still war damaged. I was pissed because we got to the city at 1pm, and all Mary wanted to do was sit around. Why did she come? But I'll talk about Berlin in a minute.

The day in Leiden was a waste. We went on a learn nothing walking tour and then saw a museum that was about sheep. I don't remember this museum, but the thought about a museum about sheep is hilarious. Then we left for Utrecht, where we listened to another lecture that I slept through. Then we went on another walking tour, saw more churches, and spent no daylight on our own. That night I went to an Indian restaurant with Steve & Jared and then to a No Drug bar, probably the only one in the city. We talked a lot about Seinfeld episodes. I felt like an intruder, but April, Valerie, and the others obviously tried to get rid of me, so I had not a lot of choice. I wish I had gone with Erika & Matt & Brad. I just felt like an intruder. Steve and Jared especially are cool. I wonder if they're gay. Jared went hiking this weekend. Steve went to Berlin. Anyway, that night Erika, Matt, and Mary and I were talking for a long time in the hostel room while everyone else either walked to the beach or was in the bar. Bird and Dusty stole beer before the bartender came. I was going to get something but then decided not to. That was in Leiden actually - Utrecht was the separate boy and girl buildings. I went right to sleep as soon as we got to the hostel in Utrecht.

That morning we had a five hour bus ride to Gottingen, Germany. I barely slept. We went through the beautiful countrysides of Holland and Germany. Holland is amazing. It is supposed to be ocean. When climate change steals the world's coastal areas, The Netherlands is going to be the richest country in the world because they know how to make land out of oceans! There are many canals - Leiden et Utrecht were beautiful - and there are also many windmills dotting the countryside. There were two in Leiden. And Germany is beautiful as well - especially the towns. Each town has a church as the central point. The only part of the  bus ride I slept through was crossing the border. It never ceases to amaze me how you can get through borders like you're going from Ohio to Kentucky. We got to Gottingen and went straight to the hotel. I shared a room with Jennifer S. We were late to a lecture, the best lecture so far because it was brief. Then Tony took us on a pointless walking tour. The city of Gottingen is cool. It's exactly how I pictured a German town. We ate an awesome dinner at the Ratskeller restaurant underneath the Rathaus building. I drank three beers there. Then we went back to the hotel. Well, first I followed April & Kate & Valerie to a McDonald's (ugh). I experimented as much as I could by ordering a beer from McDonald's. It was piss water beer. Why again I didn't go with Erika, Matt, and Brads, I don't know.

But the bus ride back was fun. All the bus rides were cool except the one time Dusty & Grant sat up there in the front. The bus was awesome. It was a double decker pink bus with a crazy driver named Felipe. The choice of music wasn't the best all the time, but it was ok. Anyway, even Matt O was drunk. He kept calling for the "blue mood lights." Then we got to the hotel and headed for the bar. It was a great time. Erika, Matt, Brad M and O sometimes were sitting at a table. We played Euchere and talked and watched Matt H and Mary drink Bailey's after Bailey's. Mary is really anal about everything - but Matt H is friends with her. I puked in the bar bathroom but didn't tell anyone. And now I'm telling the whole world. Matt O kept buying people drinks. I went upstairs and took a shower and then slept for three hours before I had to get up again to go to Woffenbuttel to go to some library of old books. Some library? It was opened in 1572 and includes among its 900,000 books 350,000 that were printed from the 15th to the 18th centuries. Something I would love to visit today! I felt sick and took a long time in the bathroom of the library and was very embarrassed when I saw the long line complaining about the smell. Lovely. We drank far too much beer on this study tour.

Then we took the bus to the Braunschweig train station. Erika invited me to go with them to Berlin, so I did. Her and Brad had to buy tickets, so we missed the 12:57 and left at 2:08, which arrived in Berlin 50 minutes late. So we missed all the festivities - Oct. 3 is the day of German reunification - 8 or 9 years ago. We ate at an Italian place then went to find our hotel. It was an hour away and quite a walk from the last bus stop. I thought we would never find it. But it was nice. We played two games of Euchere then crashed. I got up after 8am & took a shower in the bathroom. There was no curtain or wall to stop the water from getting all over the bathroom floor. It was very entertaining. Then we had breakfast. We had to steal some for Brad because we only paid for four beds. Then I got pissed. Matt & Mary were laying around and wouldn't leave. We ended up getting out of the Zoo Station after 1pm. We took the U2 (train line) from the Zoo Station to East Berlin. We barely walked anywhere before stopping at an open air market. Matt & Mary again sat down. Then the four of them went to TGI Fridays. I bought a brat (the sausage, not the child who lives above me) and walked around for an hour. It didn't take long to learn disdain for American chain restaurants. Sadly, many of the students did not. This time I would not give in. I found a great open air market and bought a 98 U2 (band) calendar and a little soccer player made out of computer chips that I will probably give to Sandy (my sister) for Christmas.

I met them back at Fridays then we split up again and i went to some more booths. I bought a DDR button from a coat. I almost bought a Soviet hat. I wanted to buy a hat but they were all expensive. But the stupid U2 calendar was ok to buy? Really? Something I could get in America? A man tried to sell me a commorative coin of the fall of the Berlin wall, but it was too expensive. I walked through the streets of East Berlin. It was depressing but cool and beautiful at the same time. This part of the city had never been allowed to become modern. There was graffiti on every building.

When we met up again we went to the Brandeburg Tor, then to Checkpoint Charlie, the last big part of the wall still standing, and to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. We got our passports stamped with a DDR entry stamp for 1DM. Mary & Brad didn't go into the museum (but did Mary want to do anything?) We finally started to head west about 8pm. I needed to go to Hard Rock. We went and saw the Victory Tower where the Stay video was filmed (more important to me than the victory in the Franco-Prussian War or the fact that the Nazis moved it to ignite German nationalism.) Rolls eyes. Mary kept complaining that she had to go to the bathroom, but was picky about them. We walked forever (a port a john every 10 metres left from the parade the day before that we watched on tv from the train station.)

After the Victory Tower we finally caught a bus to the Europa Center and walked to Hard Rock, which had a ton of U2 stuff, including one of the ZooTV cars and Larry's cymbal.  I took a picture but don't know if it will come out. I bought my Berlin pin. Guitar pin. Bought one from all the Hard Rocks back then. Ok, so I have one from Beirut, too. Shh, don't tell anyone. Then we went to KFC for dinner. Succumbed. Fail. Then to Zoo Station to await our 11:23 departure. We ran into the others in Berlin, unfortunately. Me & Erika had a compartment to ourselves and managed to get some sleep. We changed at Frankfurt, which is a big city with real skyscrapers, as opposed to fake ones then went to Koblenz along the Rhine River. It was the most beautiful train ride. The leaves were changing colors, the sun was out, the fog was dancing on the water, the buildings were awesome, and there were many incredible castles. Now, though, I want to sleep. Forgot to mention Hard Rock Cafe in Antwerp and Big Boy. Planet Hard Rock and no Big Boy is the truth. Not a Hard Rock Cafe, just used an awning with the logo and they had a statue of Big Boy outside. It was the funniest thing; I couldn't stop laughing at it. No one else thought it quite as funny as I did. It still makes me laugh.

Separating from the group and touring around on my own gave me a sense of freedom and allowed me to see more than I would with them. It was something I'd come to enjoy. Others saw wandering as pointless; they wanted itineraries and schedules and reservations. But you don't get to know a place by following guidebooks. You have to wander. You have stumble upon the places locals go. My best travel experiences have been these discoveries: a local bar, a strange store, an odd house. So many  wonders go undiscovered simply because people are afraid to stray from the beaten path. You also get to meet people this way, people who can show you and teach you things you'd never get from a guidebook. If you're lucky, you get new friends out of it, too.

If we had blogs in 1997: I still don't know who Christophe Plantin was

Leuven...City Hall, if I remember correctly.

The latest installment from my "If we had blogs in 1997" series is about the bizarre study tour we took through Flanders and Holland. The way the program worked is you had one core course, presumably in your major or related to it, that was worth four credit hours plus two additional hours for a research project. The core courses each took a week-long field study trip to someplace in Europe. At that time, there were two core courses offered - one in political history and another in educational psychology. Being a political science major, I elected to take the political history course, which originally was supposed to be some sort of course that had a photography project to go along with it. At the last minute, however, the professor had to withdraw from the school, and they had to scramble to find someone to take his place. Enter Tony Steinhoff. 

30 Sept 1997

Second day of the study tour today. I'm sitting on the bus in Antwerp waiting for departure to Leiden. Saturday night I went to a restaurant to celebrate Robert's birthday (he paid for everyone). It was a pretty good time. Sunday the bus departed for Leuven. Our bus is cool - it's a pink double decker. The bus ride up was nice; we played Euchere with Tony. He's hard to figure out. He's a very nervous man with a quick temper. But he seems cool.

Tony Steinhoff. First year professor, now Associate Professor at University of Tennessee Chattanooga. Droning lecturer. Tough grader. Stealer of souls. Check out these rating by his recent students.

We spent a nice night in Leuven. Went with April and Kate and Brad R, Brad M, and Matt H. We were just looking for a place to go (place means bar), so we just picked a place. Then we went to the place next door, then a place across the square. Then another place, each time having a different beer. Belgians are really proud of their beer, but I didn't think it was that great. Ha! Famous last words! It was a good time, then we went back and Brad, Brad, & Kate, and I stayed out and talked for awhile about everything. It was the best conversation I've had since I've been here. Then yesterday we walked around Leuven for the morning and then had to sit through a lecture and a tour of the university before taking off for Antwerp. We went to an awesome buffet restaurant after we checked into the hostel. Everyone got drunk on wine, including Matt O, the student activities coordinator, Tony, and Felipe, our bus driver. Then we went to a cool puppet show that was in Flemish, so we had no idea what it was about except that Christophe Plantin was the main character. Christophe Plantin was a figure in European political history. We went to a museum for him and he was a central character to the study tour. The tour had such a profound impact on my life that I couldn't tell you who he was without googling him just now, though there was something to do with a printing press...I do remember at one point near the end of the tour a student asked "Who is Christopher Plantin again?"

But during the puppet show the evening's mood was changed. People were being obnoxious in the theater and on the walk back. I was so embarrassed. I was fuming on the way back to the hostel. Then there was the bar in the hostel. That pissed me off. I was one of the first people at the bar, but one of the last to get my drink. So I was pissed about that rudeness too. But a shower cured that mood, because the showers were funny. The water only stayed on for about five seconds.

Today we had to listen to two lectures and then tour the city for four hours. I had a Belgium waffle which was great. Belgium waffle. Ha. We saw an awesome church that survived both world wars. Yes - Europe has road construction - we just went through it in Den Haag. Good lord, you'd think I was in a destitute third world country. Antwerp is definitely a place I would like to go back to. Alas, I haven't been back. I want to take a summer trip to Flanders and do a lot of biking, so I will get there one day soon. There is so much art there and we had no time for ourselves there. We are already a half hour off schedule because Tony allowed for no traffic - and we left Antwerp at 5:00 and had to go through Rotterdam and Den Haag traffic. His schedule is way too tight.

Now I am about ready to go to bed after an evening (though brief) in Leiden. Now we're in Holland. When we got to Leiden (late, of course), we went straight to go eat. But a lot of stupid people had to use the ATM machine before the search of restaurants (which there were plenty of). Ooh, what a crime, having to get guilders when entering The Netherlands for the first time. I guess I had guilders on me. I take it this was my lesson learned from not having gotten lira before going to Italy? Then April & Kate & Valerie & Dana went to an Italian place (so adventurous) while me and Brad R went to a Pancake place (native to Holland). The "clique" was in there, but it was ok. The pancakes were awesome. I had a pineapple pancake the size of a pizza. Brad had a tomato/cheese/onion pancake which was pretty good too. The people there were great too (employees, I mean). Then we found a cool pub with half price beer. And Achtung Baby! which was my favorite part. We talked about owning restaurants & then Steve & Jared came in. And then a bunch of other people came in, including Kyle, who said, "I guess we came to the wrong place" when he looked and saw who was already there. What an asshole. I'd like to confront him about it. But John & Scott were there too. So it was ok. This reads like an episode of Mean Girls, or at least what I think an episode of Mean Girls is like. But come on, what a dick thing to say.

After sampling three Dutch beers, we had to go back to the bus and the hostel, where the Clique had the bar taken over and some idiots walked a half hour to the beach. And now, here I sit, at 1am, six hours away from wake up.

Flanders is a great part of the world. Food, beer, people, architecture, art, beaches, history...everything I love is in that tiny part of the world. I have planned a trip that involves biking that I'd like to take in the next few years. Just waiting for the budget and vacation time to line up. Funny thing is I'm not sure I would have ever gone there had it not been for this study tour. I mean, when Americans think about going to Europe, they think about Paris, London, and Rome, not Antwerp and Leuven. That's a shame!